Remove the Excuses from Call Coaching

Do your sales managers coach?

Every sales executive falls into one of these categories when I ask this question:

1. Yes, I see them.
2. Yes, they say they do, and I trust them.
3. No, my managers sit in their offices and walk out at the end of every day/week/month and ask their team how they are going to hit their number.

Having been a sales leader with coaches reporting up to me, I have experienced each of these scenarios.  I also worked hard to never become a second level leader (who manages managers) that sat behind SFDC reports and spreadsheets all day.  Directors or VPs in high performing sales organizations will skip the managers to get in the worlds of the reps periodically.

Here’s the plain truth.  It’s really easy not to coach.  Think about it.  What are you asking your coaches to do?

Sit Side-by-Side and Listen

Boring until a prospect or customer picks up or you bring your laptop with you which devalues the experience for the rep.

Run Mock Scenarios

This is OK to a point, but role plays can get tedious, the conversations unrealistic, and the reps don’t find value in the experience.

Listen to Call Recordings

Great business practice, but the reality is there is a call recording paradox where even though you can/do record calls it’s too difficult to do anything with them outside of a quick listen, let along the challenge of even finding them in the first place.

Roller Chair Coaching

This is where coaches sit on the floor and roll up when they see fit. My two issues with this are how do you ensure the skill taught is embraced and do you really think a rep likes it when they have two people talking to them at once?

Whisper or Barge

Almost all modern telephony/dialer technologies allow you to either say something that the rep can hear but the prospect can’t (whisper) or just ram your way into the live sales call (barge).  The problem with these is that your managers need to be available and it’s kind of rude to the sales rep and buyer having a conversation.

The bottom line is that current sales coaching methods at the call level are fundamentally broken.  If you use any of the above methods then you have probably experienced this sad fact: It takes a long time to get to a coachable moment.  And when that coaching happens, the lesson is not captured for others to learn.  The way most companies do coaching is not repeatable and scalable. I am privileged to speak with sales executives on a daily basis from the largest companies to the startup down the street.  Let’s be real here – many say coaching is important, but they don’t actually know how relevant it is within their business.

The questions I have for you are:

• How important is efficient and effective coaching to your company?
• Is it a nice to have, or a need to have?
• Why?
• How badly do you want a coaching culture in your business?